Information from the Cecil Territory, Military Intelligence Bureau, and the legion's front line was quickly sent to Gawain.
Seeing Byron’s report on the construction of a temporary prisoner of war camp on the same site and the nearby farm granary received from Horsman to maintain the consumption of prisoners of war, Gawain showed a satisfied expression: “Byron is a talent. ...can actually come up with the idea of letting the prisoners of war build a camp to lock themselves up, and five thousand axes solved the problem."
Hubo, who was standing next to him, couldn't help but roll his eyes: "As soon as I heard that, I was surprised. I know this idea must be right for you... I don’t know how such ideas come from the minds of people like you..."
"The battlefield is ever-changing, only ideas Only those who are equally flexible can take the initiative," Gawain said seriously.
"Okay, okay, you are an expert," Amber said in a very perfunctory manner, and then showed a somewhat emotional expression, "But then again, this is really a long chase... In At Gravel Ridge, it took Philip less than two hours to defeat the noble coalition, but it took us more than ten days to deal with the fleeing enemies... I thought it would take at most two or three days."
Gawain smiled and shook his head: "I deliberately gave Philip the order to prolong the pursuit as much as possible - don't put too much pressure on the enemy, don't pursue too closely. , always threatening at the boundary of the range of the 'Persuader' rail gun, and also harassing with light infantry from time to time, in order to maintain the pursuit for more than ten days."
Amber looked confused when he heard this. : "Why?"
"Otherwise, how could three thousand people defeat thirty or forty thousand enemies?" Gawain looked into Amber's eyes, "The coalition of nobles is indeed on the verge of collapse, but this is just a frontal combat capability. In terms of number, they still have thirty to forty thousand survivors, and thirty to forty thousand of them are physically strong and clear-minded. Among them, the extraordinary professionals who hold the line may even retain a certain willingness to resist, because those The people in the middle and rear of the team probably did not see the artillery bombardment at all - in this case, the combat regiment led by Philip could defeat them head-on, but could not annihilate them all, nor could they prevent them from escaping, let alone There was no way to capture them while ensuring his own safety."
Amber finally came to his senses: "That's why you let Philip chase the defeated soldiers with artillery shells for more than ten days?"< /p>
"The mountain people in the north will hunt red mountain wolves before winter. They use 'sound arrows' and gongs and drums that make loud whistles to drive away red mountain wolves day and night. They rotated into the mountains to rest, and they were able to drive the red mountain wolves, which outnumbered the people in the northern mountains, to the point of despair. They jumped off the cliffs in groups, and those coalition forces of nobles... their will was no match for the red mountain wolves, and they drove them away. More than ten days is enough." Gawain shook his head. "Only by wearing down their will to the limit, making them exhausted, slow in thinking, and losing their most basic ability to judge, can Philip's three thousand people be safe.Chaity took over 30,000 to 40,000 prisoners of war. Otherwise, why do you think Byron gave those prisoners 5,000 axes, so that they could just chop down trees and build a prisoner of war camp to lock themselves up? "
Hubo looked at Gawain up and down with an expression of admiration, and couldn't help but sigh: "He is indeed a seven-hundred-year-old rice dumpling, he is so sophisticated..."
Then before Gawain casually took out something from her side and slapped her against the wall, she quickly changed the subject: "But having said that... the pursuit of these ten days, let alone those noble soldiers, I'm afraid the entire Ansu No one has seen it before... After all, you are the first person in history who did not accept an armistice in a noble war. "
"I accept the truce. After they are completely wiped out or all surrender, the war will naturally end," Gawain said casually, "and I believe this day will not be too far away. "
"By the way, what are you going to do next? Amber looked at Gawain curiously, "The coalition of nobles has been completely destroyed. Their lords are staying in the prisoner-of-war camp on the edge of the Earl of Horsman. There are dozens of noble territories in the south waiting for you to take over." On the other hand, according to the information I received, one-third to one-fourth of the noble coalition forces escaped the pursuit of Philip's knights in the plains. These people probably did not dare to return to their territory. If they were everywhere, If it wanders around, it might become a big trouble. ”
Although he is usually a careless and unreliable guy, Amber has been a guard by Gawain’s side for a year no matter what, and is now the leader of the Military Intelligence Agency, more or less. I have accumulated some experience in doing serious work, and my analysis is quite reasonable at this time.
"Of course I will take over the land in the south..." Gawain said as he stood up and came to the office to hang. In front of the huge map of the southern border, "But the specific reception plan still needs to be carefully considered. As for those who escaped... it was expected. After all, Philip Knight's manpower was limited. It was beyond my expectation that he could only let so many people escape. Don't worry about the nobles who have run away and their remaining defeated generals, they will be clearly arranged. "
As he spoke, Gawain's eyes moved up the map, and finally stopped at the top of the map.
The northern gate of the Rock Fortress, the southern border, fell under his In the center of his sight.
After staring at the fortress for a while, Gawain withdrew his gaze and glanced at the feudal nobles in the south.
" Send a messenger to the Horsman Prisoner of War Camp and ask Philip and Byron to escort all the noble lords and extraordinary people in the prisoner of war camp back to their territory. The prisoner of war camp will be taken over by Knight Walder Perici. In addition, I will inform Hetty and all the officials of the interior department and gather at the Government Affairs Office. I have something to discuss with them - although the southern border has not been pacified, there is a part of the land that is time to be taken over. "
The war is not over yet, there are still some remnants of the nobles fleeing, and even among those nobles who have been captured, there are still many people holding on to them."The naive idea of "noble war game" was waiting for Gawain to negotiate with them, waiting for the ransom from the territory to redeem him and continue to be a lord, but on Gawain's side, he never considered negotiating with the southern border from the beginning. The aristocratic order "negotiates".
The situation he requested must be realized. Now that the forces that can obstruct it have been defeated by him, he is about to proceed with the next plan.
Soon after, Gawain appeared in front of everyone in the Government Office in the center of the territory.
The officials of the Government Office stood up collectively and then saluted their lord with awe.
This war has lasted for more than ten days. Through convenient newspapers, bulletin boards and other channels in the territory, almost everyone knows about the two overwhelming victories that took place at Gravel Ridge and Whitewater River and the subsequent actions of Cecil's soldiers. "The Great Pursuit", the results of this war not only shocked the enemy, but also shocked the Cecil people themselves. Except for Gawain who had long expected such a result, almost no one thought about the war in the new era. It turned out to be like this - their awe was not only awe for Gawain himself, but also awe for all the changes Gawain had brought about, and for this new era.
Before telling his plan, Gawain first learned about the changes in the territory during this period.
"Ancestor, the territory is currently operating smoothly and the social order is as usual," said Hetty, the top manager of the internal affairs department. , reporting what she knew about the situation, "The newspaper played a great role - it brought the people the most timely news and avoided all kinds of unwarranted tension and panic, especially Mr. Godwin's opinion articles which were very popular. In addition, due to the thorough publicity of frontline news in newspapers, the new round of recruitment of training soldiers went smoothly and has now reached the expected goal. ”
Gao Wen believes that he should be grateful to this era when the people are not enlightened. The role of the new media "newspaper" in the territory is even beyond his imagination. In this era, the people will not question it. Authority, and newspapers and the people who publish them are "authorities" in their minds, so they almost unconditionally believe what the newspapers say. To be fair, this situation was not what Gawain wanted at first, and even he did. Opening up the advanced stage of people's wisdom is precisely to break this "monopoly of authority", but at least at this stage, the influence of newspapers on the people is what he needs most.
After understanding the current situation in the territory, Gawain cleared his throat and said: "Everyone, this war is not over yet. There are still some nobles who have escaped our pursuit and disappeared into the northwest wasteland with their defeated soldiers. Soon, we will Find them and destroy them, but before that, it's time to make arrangements for what happens after the war is over. First, there is the large-scale migration of the population..."
Gawain explained his plan in detail, and this plan will undoubtedly surprise and even dumbfound everyone present.
He asked all the population in the south to move to several major cities - among othersNearly one-third of the population will be concentrated in the Cecil area, and the remaining two-thirds will be redistributed around the four regions of Horsman, Leslie, Gulen, and Conde. .
“...All villages far away from the city, knights’ camps and farms in non-grain-producing areas, and villages and towns damaged in this war...are included in the relocation list and will be moved to the place I just moved based on the principle of proximity. Several major cities were mentioned, and secondary government affairs offices were established there. The secondary government affairs offices were established under the leadership of officials and clerks trained by Cecil. In the later stage, local intellectuals were recruited for training to supplement the manpower of the government affairs office; All the migratory population in the southern region will be moved to Cecil and settled in the north bank to form a new city..."
Gaowen talked about his plan in detail. Of course, this large-scale population migration There are countless details and specific implementation methods in the plan, including ensuring farmland, resettling the relocated population, consumption of food and materials, specific plan implementation time periods, publicity and appeasement work, details of the formation of the new government affairs office, urban construction, and so on. Qing's problems are all waiting for him and his team of officials to solve, so what he proposed here is actually just a draft, his "request", and after putting forward these, this is what he left to everyone in the Government Affairs Department "Question Time".
"I have basically finished my request. Now everyone can ask questions."
Gawain put his hand on the table and slowly glanced around, but when he finished speaking For the next half minute, no one spoke.
It seems that everyone has not yet reacted. They were shocked at first, and then exchanged glances with each other. Some of them seemed thoughtful and thought of some key points, but the one who really asked the question was No one.
They didn’t know where to start.
Gawain had long expected this situation, and he waited patiently. It was not until two minutes later that Hetty was the first to break the silence: "Ancestor... I want to ask why you To carry out this kind of population migration? ”